Vienna Waits For You

The more I travel, the more I learn about life and humanity. That's a rather heady statement, but I truly feel that way. If you've ever read any of my previous posts here or at What's Next Chris (www.chriscminoweather.com), you know that I believe perspective is the most important driver of how we feel about our lives day to day. For me, in order to gain perspective in a deeper and progressive way, the gift of travel has helped me grow exponentially.

Recently my wife Edmi and I took a journey to Slovenia, with a brief detour to Vienna, Austria. What we experienced was something often beautiful and peaceful. From the scenery, to the vibe of each location, embodying the culture, and of course, sampling the food and wine. It was another chance to grow and enhance our perspective on life.

Our first stop was Vienna. This blog will be specifically about the approximately 60 hours we spent there. We quickly learned from one of the taxi drivers that Vienna was once again voted the most livable city in the world. Apparently Vienna possesses one of the best health care and education systems today. This factored in with a strong infrastructure and stability, as well as its' central location in Europe, along with many other reasons, for it often achieving this ranking.

This list is compiled by EIU, part of the Economist Group, specializing in research and analysis, founded in 1946. Below is the list of the top 10 most livable cities in the world. None of which are in the USA.

As I stated earlier, Vienna was just a quick stop before heading off to Ljubljana, Slovenia. We arrived in the evening and grabbed a pleasant dinner at a downtown restaurant called Maria & Josef. The food and service were great. As I often try to do, I attempted to speak the language in asking for the check.

Somehow the waiter thought I was asking for Ibuprofen, I kid you not. The funnier part of the story is, as he starts explaining in English what I was attempting to say in German, we noticed he had no accent. In fact, he sounded very American. Edmi asked him where he was from and he said matter of factly, Oklahoma! We cracked up as he told us his story of moving to LA and then visiting Vienna.

He's now been there eight years. When we inquired why he chose to stay, his response was something I've often heard in the past from other similar stories. "I met a girl". He's now married and said he's not going back. Again, another perspective on life and what's most important to you is what should guide one on their journey.

Not to get too involved with the food in this blog, I have to post a picture of this amazing unique dessert recommended by our other waiter. It was a scorching 95 degrees when we arrived in Vienna. He suggested this chilled saffron panna cotta with a sour cherry sauce, assortment of sweet berries topped with sugar coated almond slivers. It was refreshing and fantastic.!

In our brief time in Vienna you can't help but notice the beauty and intricacies of the architecture, like much of Europe. Buildings hundreds of years old still standing strong and proud. Art and sculpture work can be found throughout the city as well. We often felt we were on some type of movie set in the middle of a film shoot. The city is very clean and green. It brags of one of, if not the best transit system, from subway to buses to trollies, all clean and efficiently run at a fair cost.

With all of that positive perspective I do have to say I was disappointed in something I saw in parts of Vienna. Much like I saw in Lisbon and Porto in Portugal, graffiti. Far too much ugly graffiti. I get the concept of art in some graffiti and there was plenty of that as well. However, take a look at these two pictures below and convince me this is art. I also saw the same type of defacing on beautiful old doors on some streets. It does puzzle me a bit in such a clean city.

Schönbrunn Palace

Our first full day in Vienna again greeted us with temperatures in the 90's and little to no breeze. We tried to see the tourist landmark sites as best we could without passing out. We did take a tour of the Schonbrunn Palace which is pretty spectacular, as well as the garden grounds surrounding the palace. We also strolled through another park on the periphery which contained this ornate fountain known as the Obeliskbrunnen. The grounds contained other sculptures and fountains as well. They were all roped off, but the heat at this point was getting the better of me, and jumping over the ropes into the fountain was becoming a very real option. However I thought better. I could just see the headline, "US Weatherman Arrested for Jumping in Fountain to Cool Off!" Bad idea.

Up next.......There are grapes in them there hills!!!!!!

After enjoying some of the beautiful sights of Vienna and sweating our everything off, it was time to plan for our second evening in town. I realized I had yet to have the Austrian classic, schnitzel. We had booked a reservation at a restaurant called Thell.

Let's just say the schnitzel and local wine did not disappoint. I've had schnitzel here in the states, but there was something about the crispiness of its thin crust followed by the super tenderness of the meat in one bite that just took it to another level. Of course maybe it was just being in Vienna and the atmosphere and wine elevating my senses. Nonetheless it was perfect.

We were able to dine outdoors in their garden even while a thunderstorm came through as we had a protective awning overhead. It added to the ambiance and more importantly broke the heat wave.

I was already looking forward to day two in Austria which included a stop at the most famous coffee house in the city, followed by a wine tour into the country side.

That's all coming up next. Hope you're enjoying the journey so far. Please feel free to email any thoughts or suggestions.

Sunshine Always!